1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to pill dispensers and, more particularly, to an electronic pill dispenser configured to remind and dispense medications to authorized individuals at appropriate times.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medications in the forms of pills, capsules, gel-caps, pellets, tablets, etc., are normally provided in the form of a disposable plastic container with a childproof cap. When physicians prescribe medications, they typically advise the patients of proper precautions to follow during the medication administration, such as storing the medications correctly to optimally preserve them, to take the medications at appropriate times and quantities, to continue taking the medications for the full prescribed regimen, even if the patient feels better, etc. Unfortunately, patients frequently exhibit poor patient compliance in properly following through a particular drug regimen. Some factors associated with poor compliance include memory loss and other cognitive dysfunctions, poor patient motivation, attenuation of special senses, poor eyesight, lack of patient education, etc.
A variety of products and techniques for reminding patients during medication regimens are known, and are generally cost prohibitive. Therefore, a need exists for an electronic pill dispenser that is configured to remind and dispense medications to authorized individuals at appropriate times and that is economical and convenient. In addition, a particular need exists for an electronic pill dispenser configured to remind and dispense pills, capsules, pellets, tablets, or the like having any particular size and shape.
The related art is represented by the following references of interest.
U.S. patent application Publication No. 2002/0047019, published Apr. 25, 2002 and applied for James Devers, describes an electronic pill dispenser that includes two receptacles, one of which is easily accessible, and is programmed as to when respective medications should be dispensed. U.S. patent application Publication No. 2003/0222090, published Dec. 4, 2003 and applied for Gazi Abdulhay et al., describes an automated personal pill dispenser to manage dispensing of medications for a given person, in a partly automated manner so as to benefit from the use of a processor to at least alert the user and to feed selected doses from supplies of multiple drugs. U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,153, issued Mar. 12, 1985 to Thomas A. Schollmeyer et al., describes a pharmacist-programmable medication prompting system that includes a programmable prompting device that is attached to a medication container and is automatically programmed in response to inputting of a physicians prescription instructions to cause the prompting device to automatically prompt a patient to take medication at prescribed times.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,606, issued Mar. 4, 1986 to Kermit E. Lewis et al., describes an automatic pill dispenser for dispensing medical pills having different prescribed administration schedules. U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,797, issued Mar. 29, 1988 to Terry M. Haber, describes a dosage sealing, monitoring, and dispensing assembly including removable cartridges from which a daily dosage of vitamins, medicines, or the like, can be automatically dispensed to a user over a predetermined length of time. U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,232, issued May 25, 1993 to Thomas L. Kraft et al., describes an apparatus for dispensing homogeneous units one at a time upon rotation of the dispensing apparatus. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,347,453 and 5,495,961, issued Sep. 13, 1994 and Mar. 5, 1996, respectively, to Federico A. Maestre, describe a portable programmable medication alarm device for aiding in the administration of medication or pharmaceuticals in accordance with a prescribed medication dosage schedule.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,323, issued Dec. 10, 1996 to Larry O. Kurtenbach, describes a medication dispensing and monitoring system for dispensing medication to a patient at a desired time. U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,064, issued Sep. 22, 1998 to William P. Barbour, describes a medicine container with a sound capsule that aids those who are visually impaired to receive instructional information concerning the medicine. U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,590, issued Dec. 22, 1998 to Carlos de la Huerga, describes a multi-piece medication container having a first piece with an interactive label and memory strip containing prescription information, medication information and program codes that are downloaded to a second piece having a computer processor for communicating information to a patient and inputting or updating information in the memory strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,563, issued Jan. 19, 1999 to Lawrence E. Guerra et al., describes a medicine vial dispensing apparatus that receives open top, medicine vials from storage in a horizontal orientation and delivers the vials for use in a substantially upright orientation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,020, issued Dec. 21, 1999 to Meir Bartur, describes a medication dispensing and monitoring system that includes an acknowledge-back pager, a carriage communicating with the pager, and a medication unit dispensing stored medications. U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,918, issued Feb. 8, 2000 to Richard R. Dumont et al., describes a programmable dispenser in which the delivery of medication can be made in dosages and at times preset by the patient or caregiver.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,804, issued May 29, 2001 to Van Collin Peery et al., describes a pill dispensing apparatus that is capable of discharging various quantities of pills in an orderly and controllable manner. U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,717, issued Jun. 19, 2001 to Laurence R. Nicholson et al., describes a liquid medication dispenser apparatus that provides for user-friendly medication measurement and compliance. U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,957, issued Dec. 18, 2001 to Daryl L. Bell-Greenstreet, describes an automatic medication dispenser that is capable of distributing medication according to at least one prescribed time schedule. U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,797, issued Jun. 24, 2003 to Edward C. McKinney, Jr., et al., describes a programmable vitamin and pill dispenser that is capable of storing multiple pill groups.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,887, issued Sep. 23, 2003 to Larry Roediger, describes an automated medicine dispensing apparatus for dispensing an accurate amount of medication at a particular time of the day. U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,796, issued Oct. 14, 2003 to Dan B. Pool et al., describes a medication timing device for signaling medication consumption. Germany Patent Application Publication No. 19,521,912, published Dec. 19, 1996, describes a pill dispensing unit with several chambers which are filled with pills or other medications in a defined sequence, and are released in this sequence at defined times.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, an electronic pill dispenser solving the aforementioned problems is desired.